Prairie du Chien prepares to celebrate Carp Fest

7:38 AM,
Dec. 21, 2013

This photo taken on Dec. 10, 2013, shows the exterior of Valley Fish and Cheese in Prairie du Chien, Wis. Owner Mike Valley's work ? which fills his Valley Fish and Cheese store and what used to be the back porch of his home next door? can sell for $250 to more than $800 depending on the detail.

Written by

Barry Adams
Wisconsin State Journal

Mike Valley's wood shop offered a comfortable retreat from the single-digit temperatures and biting wind that howled from the west across the Mississippi River.

Heated by a hulking wood stove, this is where Valley uses white pine and white cedar, power and hand tools, and small brushes to carve and paint spectacular decoys of mallard, merganser and canvasback ducks along with other waterfowl that frequent the nearby backwaters and sloughs.

Valley's work - which fills his Valley Fish and Cheese store and what used to be the back porch of his home next door- can sell for $250 to more than $800 ...